If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, one of the most useful accessories you and your family might want to use is the Apple Watch. With this wearable tech on your wrist, you can track your health and fitness data, make calls, send messages, check your sleep, or use apps without ever unlocking your iPhone.
How Apple Watch Can Be Your Child's Phone with Family Setup
While most of the features on an Apple Watch are only useful if you pair it with an iPhone, non-iPhone users can still use an Apple Watch as long as someone in their family uses an iPhone to set it up. In this post, we’ll explain all of the requirements and limitations of using Family Setup on an Apple Watch, and what features your family member can access once their watch is paired with your iPhone.
Apple introduced the Family Setup feature for Apple Watch in 2020 as a way to set up Apple Watch for someone who doesn't have an iPhone. The feature was designed to help a family member, like your elderly parents or school-aged children, use an Apple Watch independently without the need for an iPhone alongside them.
When an Apple Watch is set up using Family Setup, the user can make calls, send messages, use fitness features, and share their location with others without having to use an iPhone themselves. With Family Setup, the iPhone used to set up a watch can later be used to control some of the watch's functions.
